Another Spring League for Birmingham.

[Slammersman]

Read that the NAFL is placing a team in Birmingham. They are the Birmingham Freedom. Well here is the article and the logo and possible helmet.

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2014/09/is_city_ready_for_another_pro.html

[kewp80]

What is this NAFL? Who's behind it? And Hartford Merchantmen? Really?

[Slammersman]

Your guess is as good as mine. I just saw the article. I did do a google search and it came up as North American Football League there is a page but looks like a page holder.

[Slammersman]

Here is another article.

http://www.bizjournals.com/birmingham/news/2014/09/11/professional-football-returning-to-birmingham.html

[dfwabel]

They also plan to have a team in Louisville. In the Spring...During UofL basketball season...During the preparation for the Derby...

None of these "concept leagues" actually have any market value, thus they over inflate what they think they are worth. They have no revenues, just financial numbers they made up. They just went to LegalZoom and created an LLC.

Here is the deal. They plan to use that same team salary of $4MM/team, like the A11FL wanted to. They also want to sell local ownership, up to 49% to local investors, just like the A11FL wanted to.

Now, these are different guys trying the same investment plan, but using different cities for a product which really has no value and are looking for a different result. Plus, they also have alt-football's "Don Quixote" on board too in Dusty Sloan.

[walkerws]

That league logo is from the former minor league football league that was a coalition of leagues across the country. Most things didn't change but it regionally aligned teams in hopes of creating a true national championship across three divisions. I thought it went bankrupt or something.

[jaha32]

Does the NAFL by any chance have any connection to the NSFL(National Spring Football League) which was supposed to launch in spring 2014? The reason I wonder is because the NSFL also had a team called the Kentucky Thoroughbreds. I think the NSFL was way under everyone's radar including my own, until someone from the Kentucky Thoroughbreds contacted me last summer saying that they somehow "unknowingly" purchased my logo from a scam artist claiming to have created it. In fact, they claimed half of the proposed teams purchased logos from this one con artist. Some were blatant rip offs of existing minor league teams. Anyway, after a few e-mails the Thoroughbreds stopped using my logo, but the whole situation was bizarre. At least they tried to rectify it.

I just found this old thread discussing it. I had no idea it made on the boards. Long story short, I hope the guys running the NAFL are not the same as the NSFL.

http://boards.sportslogos.net/topic/93832-infringement-scavenger-hunt/

[garydavison]

This league looks like another league that will fail before ever playing a single game.

However there is a market for Spring football. This has been proven in the past.

-The USFL had good attendance in alot of its markets before deciding to try and play in the fall. The XFL is remembered as a disater

-The XFL although remembered as a disater saw 6 of it's 8 teams with over 20 000 fans per game. San Francisco even had over 35 000 per game. These are actually great figures for a first year league. The league is remebered for low quality football but it had good numbers.

So you could have a major pro spring league. I think while it is important to have solid teams in well supported small/medium markets with no NFL teams you also need teams in the ''Big 3'' in order to obtain good T.V ratings/contracts. The Big 3 being of course New york, LA and Chicago. I would add Toronto for a major presence in Canada. Say what you want about the ''Bills in Toronto'' but it sells much more tickets than the Argonauts average per game and this despite the Bills not being Toronto's team and despite expensive tickets. Toronto wants big league football.

So you would have a league that would resemble this:

-New York

-Chicago

-Los Angeles

-Toronto

-San Francisco

-Birmingham

-Memphis

-Orlando

-Las Vegas

-San Antonio

What are your thoughts?

[Slammersman]

This league looks like another league that will fail before ever playing a single game.

However there is a market for Spring football. This has been proven in the past.

-The USFL had good attendance in alot of its markets before deciding to try and play in the fall. The XFL is remembered as a disater

-The XFL although remembered as a disater saw 6 of it's 8 teams with over 20 000 fans per game. San Francisco even had over 35 000 per game. These are actually great figures for a first year league. The league is remebered for low quality football but it had good numbers.

So you could have a major pro spring league. I think while it is important to have solid teams in well supported small/medium markets with no NFL teams you also need teams in the ''Big 3'' in order to obtain good T.V ratings/contracts. The Big 3 being of course New york, LA and Chicago. I would add Toronto for a major presence in Canada. Say what you want about the ''Bills in Toronto'' but it sells much more tickets than the Argonauts average per game and this despite the Bills not being Toronto's team and despite expensive tickets. Toronto wants big league football.

So you would have a league that would resemble this:

-New York

-Chicago

-Los Angeles

-Toronto

-San Francisco

-Birmingham

-Memphis

-Orlando

-Las Vegas

-San Antonio

What are your thoughts?

I think Birmingham's 1st game in the xfl had attendance of over 50,000 then it dropped off because the Bolts were awful. The Stallions of the USFL I think averaged 40,000 for its games back in the 80's

[leopard88]

Rank

Team

Avg.

Total

1.

San Francisco Demons

35,005

175,024

2.

NY/NJ Hitmen

28,309

141,545

3.

Orlando Rage

25,563

127,817

4.

Los Angeles Xtreme

22,679

113,395

5.

Las Vegas Outlaws

22,619

113,069

6.

Memphis Maniax

20,396

101,981

7.

Birmingham Thunderbolts

17,002

85,012

8.

Chicago Enforcers

15,710

78,549

-

LEAGUE

23,410

936,392

[Slammersman]

Birmingham Thunderbolts

17,002

85,012

I pretty sure that is right but I know that the 1st game the Birmingham Thunderbolts played againts Memphis at Legion Field had Attendance of around 50,000. I remember the news report saying so. I can't find anything on it, but I do know I went to some XFL games and after that 1st game they didnt have but maybe a few thousand there. Looked worse than a UAB game attendance.